Photo of the week

-- Don Leach

Pictures seem to stick in my head. I’ll see something that would make

a good picture, won’t shoot it, and it will stick in my head. Much like a

top-40 oldies song that sticks in your head when you walk by a radio and

you keep humming it all day.

Such was the case with Matt Moore outside the Ensign Elementary School

gym. As I walked out of the gym the sun was setting just over the trees.

It was quiet outside, in contrast to the noisy gym inside.

I kept walking to my car but the image -- of the pencil, the hat, the

balanced book, the kid trying so hard -- stuck in my head. It was an

image that was screaming: “school!” I almost passed it up.

I walked back, heading through the halls of Ensign. It’sjust a kid

studying I thought, but for some reason this seemed... funny and

different. As I walked up, Matt was still sitting there.

I chose a side angle to show off the items that stuck in my head: the

pencil, hat and feet holding the book. When he saw me I walked up and

told him I was taking pictures for the Daily Pilot at the basketball

game. I told him he looked coolbalancing the book on his feet, trying to

study. He told me he had just played a basketball game. No big deal.

As a photog around town looking for pictures, sometimes you have to

stop, turn around and go back to that image stuck in your head. It might

make a cool “school” shot, after all.